On June 16th, Italian-Serbian singer-songwriter Milena Galasso will release her most recent single, Singing Through the Pain. Through the power of music, the song leads listeners on a journey of overcoming anxiety and escaping from obstacles in life. A challenging period in Milena’s life served as the song’s inspiration. She was having trouble finding employment in London at the height of the Covid pandemic and was concerned about her future. She turned to music and discovered comfort in making something lovely. The end result is a catchy pop song that exhorts listeners to take their time, breathe, and live their lives at their own pace. Check out the exclusive interview below:
1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?
MILENA GALASSO: I grew up in a small city in the northeast of Italy called Udine. My mom’s from Serbia and my dad is from Avellino, close to Naples. A mixture of Balkan music and Canzone Napoletana was always playing in our house and my parents encouraged both me and my brother to learn music from a very young age.
2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?
MILENA GALASSO: I started having singing lessons when I was about 11 years old. Initially, it was my mum’s idea. When she asked me for the first time, I told her that I didn’t need lessons, I already knew how to sing. Then I had my first lesson and changed my mind entirely. Vocal training is key to me, and I grew so fond of it that now I’m studying to become a certified vocal coach because I want to be able to help others to the best of my knowledge.
3. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?
MILENA GALASSO: Music is one of the most powerful vehicles we have to convey our messages to the world, and I strongly feel the responsibility to carry a positive one. I have a very special song coming out later this winter that I can’t wait for you all to hear.
4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
MILENA GALASSO: I want my listeners to resonate with my stories, to listen to my songs and say ‘oh yeah I feel that’. I like my music to be relatable catchy and easy to listen to but at the same time, I like it to be thought-provoking. My sound is very pop, I would say, with a slightly indie touch and r&b influences.
5. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘MILENA GALASSO’?
MILENA GALASSO: Probably Celine Dion was the first and strongest, but I often sang songs by Avril Lavigne, Lady Gaga and some Italian artists like Elisa and Giorgia since I was a kid. Milena Galasso is my birth name; I keep it because I want to be true to who I am.
6. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?
MILENA GALASSO: There’s nothing like the adrenaline you get on stage, especially when you’re playing your music live and the audience is singing back your lyrics. I live for those moments, it’s the reason why I write in the first place. But as much as I love social interaction it can also so easily drain my energy that sometimes I need a day or two to fully recover. That’s when I enjoy the peace and calm of my bedroom, a cup of coffee and my keyboard.
7. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as POP?
MILENA GALASSO:
For many many years, music-making was a bit of a mystery to me. I liked to sing, and I liked to listen to all sorts of genres, but I was unsure of how to go about writing my songs. I had stories to tell, and I was always writing in the corners of my school notebooks, but it was only when I came to London and did my masters at BIMM that I started to learn about songwriting. It’s all trial and error at first, isn’t it? You start listening more carefully to the songs that you like, and you ask yourself questions as to what are the specific elements that you like about those songs and you try to emulate those drumbeats, those patterns etc. until you find your sound. And that can change as your music taste develops.
8. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?
MILENA GALASSO:
There’s so much work involved in music-making. From getting inspired to write a song to producing it and promoting it. You can spend 300 hours working on a song that only takes 3 minutes to listen to. It’s time-consuming and expensive, especially if you’re self-funding your career and you’re at an early stage. I do have big hopes and expectations for the future and I believe that hard work always pays off, but at the end of the day I am happy because no matter the reach I am doing what I love and nothing else matters.
9. With social media having a heavy impact on our lives and the music business in general, how do you handle criticism, haters, and/or naysayers in general? Is it something you pay attention to, or simply ignore?
MILENA GALASSO: It’s better to get people talking about you than ignore you, isn’t it? I don’t ignore criticism, it’s not something that easily slides off you, but at the same time, I try to be rational. Sometimes you learn from it, and it helps you grow, and sometimes you just got to understand that it’s mathematical and that you’re gonna get some hate along the way. I am lucky to be surrounded by people who love me and support me and are always going to be brutally honest with me, and that’s extremely important to me.
10. Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?
MILENA GALASSO: If my fans have a genuine interest in knowing what inspired me to write a specific song, I am more than happy to explain it to them. I’m an open book. But at the same time, I make music so that others can listen and relate to it. It makes me happy to hear that they’ve made it their own.
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